JODI ARIAS: How A Nice Girl From California Turned Into A Brutal Killer

The 32-year-old killed her Mormon motivational speaker
ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander back in 2008. Arias said she killed
him in self-defense, but prosecutors alleged she carefully
plotted his demise.

During her 18 days of testimony, Arias
revealed raunchy details about her sex life with Alexander to
try to show he was abusive and sexually controlling. Other
details about her life and psyche also emerged during the trial.

An 'Almost Ideal' Childhood

She was born in Salinas, Calif. and went to Yreka Union High
School, where she was a "good girl" who
didn't seem the slightest bit off, her close high school friend
Tina Ross told HLN TV.

She grew up with both of her parents, four siblings, and
grandparents who lived nearby. She told the TV show "48 Hours"
that her childhood was "almost
ideal," ABC reported.

Arias, an aspiring photographer, dropped out of high school in
the 11th grade, though.

Aimless In Her 20s

During her 20s, she worked a
series of dead-end jobs and cycled through relationships with
cheating boyfriends, she told jurors in the Arizona courtroom
where she was tried, according to the AP.

It was through this work that she met the man she'd kill. They
got together at a 2006 conference in Las Vegas for Prepaid Legal
Services, as it was then known.

A Complicated Relationship

At the time, Arias was living in Palm Desert, Calif., and
Alexander was in Mesa, Ariz., but the two struck up a
long-distance relationship. They
exchanged 82,000 emails, according to court records cited by
The Huffington Post.

After just two months of dating, Arias converted to the Mormon
faith, according to ABC. She seemed to focus her entire life
around Alexander. Alexander's friend Dave Hall told HLN TV that
she
never spoke about her past and didn't seem to have any
friends.

Alexander told his friends that Arias hacked into his Facebook
account and slashed his tires after they broke up, according to
multiple news sources.

Sociopaths have something
"severely wrong" with their consciences, according to
"Psychology Today," and Arias remained mostly composed during her
televised murder trial. She was even pretty composed during the
guilty verdict, aside from shedding a few tears.

"She is really a walking embodiment of sociopathy in many ways,"
Bonn told HuffPost. "The ironic thing about that, I believe, is
that is part of the intrigue. There's a disconnect: How can this
pretty young woman be responsible for this reprehensible,
incomprehensible act?"

Arias' belief that she could convince a jury that she stabbed
Alexander nearly 30 times to defend herself also reflects a
classic sociopathic trait: narcissism.

Arias initially told investigators she knew nothing about
Alexander's murder, and then blamed it on masked intruders before
finally claiming self-defense.

"This self-defense position that she is taking is the third in a
series of realities that she's created, none of which is
consistent with the other," Bonn told HuffPost. "It's consistent
with a sociopath personality. She's so narcissistic and enamored
with herself that she thinks she can make it believable."